Page:The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany.djvu/77

Rh and their bearing, both in public and private. What wonder that when these smiling people say, ‘Come thou with us, and we will do thee good,’ the hitherto half-persuaded one is wholly drawn over, as by an irresistible attraction. The religious body which can direct, and control, in no arbitrary sense, but through sane counsel, the reading of its membership, stands a great chance of sweeping the world within a generation.”

The charter of this little church was obtained August 23, 1879, and in the same month the members extended a unanimous invitation to Mrs. Eddy to become its pastor. At a meeting of those who were interested in forming the church, Mrs. Eddy was appointed on the committee to formulate the rules and by-laws, also the tenets and church covenant. The first business meeting of the church was held August 16, 1879, in Charlestown, Mass., for the purpose of electing officers. August 22 the Clerk, by instructions received at the previous meeting, sent an invitation to Mrs. Eddy to become pastor of the church. August 27 the church held a meeting, with Mrs. Eddy in the chair. An interesting record of this meeting reads: “The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved. Then Mrs. Eddy proceeded to instruct those present as to their duties in the Church of Christ, giving some useful hints as to the mode of conducting the church.”

At a meeting held October 19, 1879, it was unanimously voted that “Dr. and Mrs. Eddy merited the thanks of the society for their devoted labors in the cause of Truth,” and at the annual meeting, December 1 of the same year, it was voted to instruct the Clerk to call Mrs. Eddy to the pastorate of the church, and at this meeting Mrs. Eddy accepted the call. The first meeting of this little